Rudolf Kompfner (May 16, 1909 – December 3, 1977) was an Austrian-born inventor, physicist and architect, best known as the inventor of the traveling-wave tube (TWT).
Rudolf Kompfner | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 16, 1909 |
| Died | December 3, 1977 (aged 68) Stanford, California, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Oxford University, D.Phil. |
| Awards | Duddell Medal and Prize (1955) Stuart Ballantine Medal (1960) IEEE Medal of Honor(1973) National Medal of Science (1974) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Electrical engineering |
Life
editKompfner was born in Vienna to Jewish parents.[1] He was originally trained as an architect and after receiving his university degree in 1933 he moved to England (due to the rise of anti-Semitism), where he worked as an architect until 1941. He had a strong interest in physics and electronics, and after being briefly detained by the British at the start of World War II he was recruited to work in a secret microwave vacuum tube research program at the University of Birmingham. While there, Kompfner invented the TWT in 1943. After the war he became a British citizen, continued working for the Admiralty as a scientist, and also studied physics at the University of Oxford, receiving his D.Phil. in 1951.[2]
In 1965, he received an honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology.[3]
Patents
edit1957
edit- Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier (issued August 27, 1957)
- Traveling Wave Tube (issued October 29, 1957)
- Electron Beam System (issued November 5, 1957)
1958
edit- Traveling Wave Tube (issued May 13, 1958)
- Electron Beam System (issued October 21, 1958)
- Non-reciprocal Wave Transmission (issued November 11, 1958)
1959
edit- Traveling Wave Tube (issued January 6, 1959)
- Direct View Storage Tube (issued March 24, 1959)
- Backward Wave Tube (issued June 16, 1959)
- Traveling Wave Tube (issued July 14, 1959)
- Apparatus Utilizing Slalom Focusing (issued August 11, 1959)
- Non-reciprocal Wave Transmission Device (issued November 3, 1959)
- Backward Wave Amplifier (issued December 8, 1959)
1960
edit- Non-reciprocal Elements in Microwave Tubes (issued January 26, 1960)
- Coaxial Couplers (issued February 16, 1960)
- Pulse Coincidence Detecting Tube (issued April 19, 1960)
- Electron Gun for Slalom Focusing Systems (issued May 31, 1960)
- High Efficiency Velocity Modulation Devices (issued August 16, 1960)
- Traveling Wave Tube (issued October 4, 1960)
1961
edit- Low Noise Amplifier (issued February 14, 1961)
- High Frequency Amplifier (issued February 21, 1961)
- Backward Wave Tube (issued May 23, 1961)
- Elastic Wave Parametric Amplifier (issued December 5, 1961)
1962
edit- Parallel High Frequency Amplifier Circuits (issued February 15, 1962)
- Scanning Horn-Reflector Antenna (issued February 13, 1962)
- Microwave Filter (issued June 26, 1962)
- Broadband Cyclotron Wave Parametric Amplifier (issued August 28, 1962)
- High Frequency Generator (issued December 4, 1962)
1964
edit- Traveling Wave Light Modulator (issued May 12, 1964)
- Artificial Scattering Elements for Use as Reflectors in Space Communication Systems (issued September 29, 1964)
- Detector for Optical Communication System (issued October 27, 1964)
1965
edit- Beam Collector with Auxiliary Collector for Repelled or Secondarily-Emitted Electrons. (Issued 6 /8, 1965)
- Antenna System (issued July 20, 1965)
- Sinusoidal-Shaped Lens for Light Wave Communication (issued December 21, 1965)
- Transmission of Light Waves (issued December 21, 1965)
1966
edit- Optical Maser Amplifier (issued May 24, 1966)
- Antenna System (issued September 13, 1966)
- Triple Element S-Lens Focusing System (issued November 15, 1966)
1967
edit- Spherical Reflector Elastic Wave Delay Device with Planar Transducers (issued May 2, 1967)
1969
edit- Intracavity Image Converter (issued July 8, 1969)
1970
edit- Receiving Antenna Apparatus Compensated for Antenna Surface Irregularities (issued January 13, 1970)
- Anti-Doppler Shift Antenna for Mobile Radio (issued March 24, 1970)
- Multiple-Pass Light-Deflecting Modulator (issued March 31, 1970)
- Multiple-Pass Light-Deflecting Modulator (issued March 31, 1970)
- Optical Waveguide (issued April 14, 1970)
- Time Division Multiplex Optical Transmission System (issued April 14, 1970)
- Digital Light Deflecting Systems (issued June 2, 1970)
- Method and Apparatus for Obtaining 3-Dimensional Images from Recorded Standing Patterns (issued July 14, 1970)
- Optical Heterodyne Receiver with Pulse Widening or Stretching (issued September 22, 1970)
- Light Communication System with Improved Signal-to-Noise Ratio (issued October 6, 1970)
1977
edit- Method of and Apparatus for Acoustic Imaging (issued March 15, 1977)
References
edit- ^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ IEEE Global History Network (2011). "Rudolf Kompfner". IEEE History Center. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
- ^ "TU Wien: Akademische Würdenträger". 21 February 2016. Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Kompfner, Rudolf (November 1964). The Invention of the Traveling-Wave Tube. San Francisco Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0911302011.
External links
edit- "IEEE Medal Of Honor Recipients, 1973" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2010., p. 4
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir